Q2§ BEX 
Bet, the cAA preterite oi beat .—He (laid fora better hour, 
till the hammer had wrought and Ut the party more pliant. 
Bacon. 
BE'TA,/! [from the form of the letter beta £, which 
it has when it fwells with feed.] In botany, a genus of the 
clafs pentandria, order digynia, natural order holoraceae. 
Generic characters are—Calyx : perianthium five-leaved, 
concave, permanent; divilions ovate-obleng, obtnfe. Co¬ 
rolla: none. Stamina: filaments five, fubulate, oppofite 
to the leaves of the calyx, and of the fame length with 
them ; antherae roundifh. Piftillum : germ in a manner 
below the receptacle; dyles two, very fhort, eredt; (fig- 
mas acute. Pericarpium : capfule within the bottom of 
the calyx, one-celled, deciduous. Seeds : fingle, kidney- 
form, comprefled, involved in the calyx.— EJfential Cha- 
r after. Calyx five-leaved; corolla none ; feed kidney- 
form, within the fubdance of the bafe of the calyx. 
Species, i. Beta vulgaris, or red garden beet: flowers 
heaped ; leaflets of the calyx toothed at the bafe. Gar¬ 
den red beet has large, thick, fucculent, leaves, which are 
for the mod part of a dark red or purple colour. The 
roots are large and deep red, and on thefe circumftances 
their goodnefs depends; for the larger they grow the 
more tender they will be, and the deeper their colour the 
more they are efiteemed. It is a native of the fea-coafl of 
the fouthern parts of Europe. Of this fpecies there are ma¬ 
ny feminal varieties; for the beet is very fubjeflto change, 
and to degenerate, at lead in our climate. The roots of 
red beet are boiled, diced, and eaten cold, by themfelves, 
or in fallads; are ufedas garni(h to difhes, and as a pickle. 
The green-leaved variety is mod edeemed; the roots be¬ 
ing the larged and mod tender. Martial has judly marked 
the beet for its fatuity. It is faid to be prejudicial to the 
(tomach, and tb afford little nourifhment. Taken in quan¬ 
tity, it tends to loofen the belly. The juice both of the 
roots and leaves is faid to be a powerful errhine, occafion- 
ing a copious difeharge of mucus without provoking freez¬ 
ing. A good fugar may be obtained from the juice of the_ 
frefit roots. It was cultivated in 1656, by Mr. John 
Tradefcant, jun. 
2. Beta cycla, or white garden beet : flowers three¬ 
fold ; leaflets of the calyx unarmed at the bafe. The root 
of this fort feldom grows larger than a man’a.thumb ; the 
(talks grow ere£t, and have oblong fpear-fhaped leaves, 
growing clofe to the dalk : the fpikes of flowers are axil¬ 
lary, long, and have narrow leaves placed between the 
flowers. The lower leaves are thick and fucculent, and 
their foot-fialks are broad. For thefe it is cultivated ; the 
leaves being boiled as fpinach, or put into foups, and the 
(talks and midrib of the leaf being (tewed and eaten as 
afparagus. ’ 1 
A large variety of this has lately been introduced from 
abroad, tinder the titles of racinc de difette , aroot offcarcity, 
and mangel wurzel. It is much cultivated in many parts 
of the continent, not only in gardens, but in the fields ; 
being much more in efteem, and perhaps really better, 
than with us, where it feems to degenerate. Its qualities, 
and the quantity of its produce, have been much magni¬ 
fied, in common with molt other things newly introduced. 
The leaf and root are faid to be excellent food for man 
and beaft : it is affirmed not to be liable to dedruCtion by 
infedts; nor to be affedted by drought, Sec. The leaves 
are recommended as equal in quality to fpinach : and be¬ 
ing from thirty to forty inches long, and from twenty-two 
to twenty-five broad, exceed it greatly.in quantity. They 
may alfo be gathered every twelve or fifteen days during 
the feafon. The roots have an earthy tafte; and are 
mawkifhly fweet, either boiled, fried, or in falad. They 
• weigh ten or twelve pounds when tranfplanted; but when 
left in the ground where they /wereTown have weighed as 
high as twenty-four pounds. The ancients catted -the 
white beet Cycla , or rather Sicla, by contraction from Si- 
cu/a, Sicilian beet, as we call*the Savoy cabbages Savoys. 
Miller mentions three varieties of this : the white, the 
green, and the Swrfs or Chard, beet: by the laft of thefe 
BET 
he probably intended the fame as the modern mangel 
wurzel, or racine de difette. He affirms, that they vary 
from one to another in culture, as he has often experienc¬ 
ed, but that they never alter to the firft or third. An 
anonymous w riter in the Gentleman’s Magazine (v. 58. 1. 
p. -872.) informs us, that three varieties appeared from 
feeds procured from Dr. Lettfom. 1. With leaves and 
(tern dark green; which was the mod common. 2. With 
ftem and leaves of a lighter colour; which he takes to be 
the white beet. 3. With demand veins of the leaves red; 
which he fays is the red beet. All of them have flowers 
In cluflers from two to three ; pidillums from two to five; 
a leaf growing from the bafe of the flowers; the fegments 
of the calyx equal, hunched, and membranaceous at the 
edge. Few plants flowering the fird year, he concludes 
it to be biennial; as indeed all the garden forts are, if not 
the wild fea beet alfo, although Linneus lets it dow-n as 
annual and Ray as perennial. Dr. Lettfom, who took 
much pains to introduce the mangel wurzel, informs us, 
that on his own land, which was not favourable to its 
growth, the roots upon an average, weighed full tea 
pounds, and, if the leaves were calculated at half that 
weight, the whole product would be fifteen pounds of nu¬ 
tritious aliment upon every fquare of eighteen inches. 
3. Beta maritima, or fea-beet: flowers double or twin; 
leaflets of the calyx even, not toothed. This differs from 
the others, according to Linnaeus, in flowering the fird 
year; in having oblique or vertical leaves; and in the 
leaflets of the calyx being equal, not toothed : according 
to Ray, in having a perennial root. This is probably the ori¬ 
ginal parent of all the garden beets: Miller however affirms, 
that he has brought the feeds from the places where they 
grow naturally, many times, and has cultivated the plants 
with care, but could never find tpiy of them to vary from 
the parent plant in the characters. It is a native of Holland 
and Great Britain on the fea coad and in fait marfhes; it 
is alfo found plentifully about Nottingham. 
4. Beta patula, or fpreading beet: flowers heaped, a)l 
the leaves linear-lanceolate, branches divaricated. Stem 
(hort, hardly a foot high, very branching; branches long, 
divaricate. It flowers in Augufi. Native of the ifland 
of Madeira. 
Propagation and Culture. , The red beet is frequently 
fown with carrots, parfnips, or onions, by the kitclteh- 
gardeners near London, who draw up their carrots or 
onions when they are young, whereby the beets will have 
room to grow, when the other crops are gathered ; but, 
where the crops are not timely removed from them, it will 
be a better method to fow them feparately. This fort re¬ 
quires a deep light foil, for, as their roots run deep in the 
ground, fo in (hallow ground they will be fhort and dringy. 
The feeds diould be Town in March, and mud be treated 
in the fame manner as the former fort; but the plants 
lhould not be left nearer than a foot didance, or in good 
land a foot and a half, for the leaves will cover the ground 
at that didance. The roots will be fit for ufe in the autumn, 
and continue good all the winter ; but in the fpring, when 
they begin to (hoot, they will be hard and dringy. A few 
roots may be left for feed, or fome of the faired roots 
tranfplanted to a (heltered fpot of ground, where they 
may be defended from drong winds, which frequently 
break down their dalks, if they are not well frpported, 
efpecially when the feeds are formed ; which, becoming 
heavy as it incrcafes in bulk, is apt to weigh down the 
dender dalks, upon which they grow. The feed will ripen 
in September, when the dalks diould be cut oft’, and fpread 
on mats to dry, and afterwards thredied out and cleared, 
and put up in bags for ufe. 
The fecond fort, which is cultivated in gardens for its 
leaves, is commonly fown by itfelf, and not mixed with 
other crops. This is fown the beginning of March, upon 
an open fpot of ground, not too moid ; the feeds (hould 
be fown thinly, becaufe the plants require room to fpread ; 
for when they are too clofe, the leaves, being fmall and 
full of fibres, will be unfit for the purpofes defigned. 
When 
